This autumn, BBC Books will publish Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, a close look at the work of chief writer and showrunner Russell T Davies on Series Four of Doctor Who. The book is co-written by Davies and Doctor Who Magazine journalist Benjamin Cook, and is scheduled for publication on25 September 2008. The publisher's blurb is below.

The book has a foreword by bestselling novelist Philip Pullman and an afterword by Tenth Doctor David Tennant.

Davies and Cook will participate in a discussion about the book and Davies' tenure on Doctor Who at the National Theatre on 7 November 2008, as part of the theatre's "Platforms" series.

Thanks to "Gregor" of the Doctor Who Forum.

In August, American comics publisher IDW will release the first issue of Doctor Who: The Forgotten, a new comic book miniseries starring the Tenth Doctor and Martha, and also containing flashback stories for each of the previous nine Doctors. Thecomic is written by Tony Lee, who previously wrote for the Tenth Doctor and Rose in the Doctor Who Magazine strip "F.A.Q." (DWM 369-371). It is illustrated by Canadian artist Pia Guerra, who is best known for her work on the Vertigo comic Y: The Last Man. Guerra has described herself as an "insane" fan of Doctor Who (see her studio for proof) and is a past winner of the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Art. Covers for the series are provided by Nick Roche, who illustrated IDW's previous Tenth Doctor miniseries. That series, written by Gary Russell, will be available in trade paperback asDoctor Who: Agent Provocateur in August.Comic Book Resources has an interview with Lee, along with sample art from the first issue of The Forgotten.IDW also publishes Doctor Who: Classic Comics, which reprints Fourth Doctor comics from Doctor Who Weekly in full color.

Thanks to Margaret Roberts and Shane Williams.

The next issue of Doctor Who Adventures is out tomorrow, 10 July, across the UK. The cover and press release are below; click on the thumbnail image for a larger version.

What to do when Doctor Who isn't on TV!

Missing the Doctor and Donna already? Do Christmas adventures with Cybermen seem far off? Then get a copy of this week's Doctor Who Adventures! It's full of monster facts, things to make and you could even win a life-size Dalek!

The big story this issue is Donna Noble's sad farewell in last week’s episode. Doctor Who Adventures looks at the life of the temp from Chiswick, and see how she changed after meeting the Doctor.

We've also got a monstrous fact file about the creator of the Daleks, Davros.

And the issue comes with a cool FREE inflatable Toclafane AND set of Doctor Who monster Power Rollers!


PLUS:

• Four brilliant posters: Journey's End, the Judoon, Cybermen and K-9!
  
• Tales from the TARDIS: Trouble for the Doctor on the planet Midnight.
  
• Quiz:Test your knowledge on Journey's End.
  
• Make: A Supreme Dalek mask.
  
• How to: Draw a skeleton monster!
  
• Doctor's Data: The Duplicate Doctor and Rose.
  
• Comic strip: The Doctor and Donna land in a strange new world in CitiZen's Arrest.
  
• Time Teasers: Tyler Talk and Smith or Jones, along with Bloodtide and Doomfinger's Woven Word Search.
  
• Who knows!: What did the Ood mean when they were talking about the Doctor's song ending and can the Doctor marry a human?
  
• Win: Fantastic goodies up for grabs including Doctor Who DVDs!
  
• Subscription offer: Subscribe and you'll get a FREE Doctor Who – Creatures and Demonsbook!
  
• ALL THIS AND LOADS MORE!

Excellent Australian ratings continue for Doctor Whodown under with it topping the elusive one million mark for the second week in a row. Partners in Crimerated 1,112,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, coming third in its timeslot and was the the top ABCprogramme for the day (and 9th overall). TheConfidential Cutdown version of 'A Noble Return' also rated very well gaining 921,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. The record-breaking Voyage of the Damned was also the ABC's top-rating programme of the week (coming 23rd overall).

Meanwhile, Crikey has previewed 'Voyage' and Series 4 saying '[f]orget about reality and indulge in a top class piece of escapism every Sunday evening . . . Let a Doctor banish any Sunday night blues for the next 14 weeks.' Karen Brooks of The Courier-Mail also writes of the good Doctor's appeal in that 'he continues to celebrate and believe in humanity's unquenchable goodness and our ability to survive and help each other.' CitySearch also describes 'Partners' as having 'some great laugh-out-loud moments' and 'a promising start to an interesting season.'

Meanwhile The Weekend Australia has described Catherine Tate as 'lovely and talented' and Sarah Lancashire as 'superb' in its preview of 'Partners' while Scott Jenkins of 'The Daily Telegraph' also previews 'Partners', calling it 'one that should please fans and newcomers alike' and is 'great fun.'

Thanks to LanzaroteLad and Theta Sigma

In the wake of the transmission of the final episode of Series Four on Saturday, interest in Doctor Who across the British media continues to be at a high.

On Saturday evening, after the episode was broadcast, Doctor Who Confidential producer Gillane Seabourne was interviewed live in studio on the BBC News channel, explaining - and, to an extent, having to defend from an irritated-seeming presenter! - the content of the episode.

One of the presenters commented to Seabourne how he had been unable to log on to a certain fan website that evening because it had shut down due to the number of users attempting to log on.

Seabourne's interview can be seen online on the BBC News website here, as part of a report on the high overnight viewing figure for the episode.

The impressive ratings performance is also the subject of pieces from The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Scotsman, Digital Spy,MediaGuardian, The Guardian and The Daily Record.

Reaction to the finale was by no means limited to coverage of the ratings, however. As soon as they were able to, the websites of several sources had published reports summarising what had happened in the episode, such was the interest generated: The Telegraph ran such a piece, as did BBC News,The Independent, Metro, The Observer and theSunday Express. The website of The Guardian also published a blog inviting comments on how well Russell T Davies had succeeded with the finale.

Reviews of the episode have come in from all quarters, as might be expected. While an article on the BBC News website suggests that amongst fandom there has been a "mixed reaction" to the finale, reviews amongst the majority of the mainstream media have been very positive. John Preston of The Telegraph felt that "As usual, Doctor Who served up a lot more than mere excitement. There was also plenty of heartbreak and heroism – clearly discernible emotions, even to the inhabitants of Planet Adolescence." In The Guardian, Lucy Mangan comments that " I think we can safely say there was something for everyone in that, can't we?" Andrew Billen of The Times had one or two reservations, but on the whole felt that "Davies did not sell us short in a spectacular finale." The finale is also reviewed by - among many, many others - Now Magazine, SFX, The Herald (an Irish paper), TV Scoop and theRadio Times website.

Elsewhere in the media, The Guardian has an interview with Russell T Davies, looking back at his time on the programme over the past few years, the inner workings of the BBC drama department and his own future career. He says of Doctor Who: "I am more in love with it than ever, but that's probably the best time to get out - not when you're bored." The Telegraph has a piece wherein Davies adds that: ""We don't want the audience to get bored of Doctor Who. When we come back in 2010, the amount of publicity we get will make what is happening now look like small fry." The Daily Mail, meanwhile, has an article alleging that 2,500 fans attempted to call the Doctor's mobile phone number, shown on screen in "The Stolen Earth". Sky News has picked up on the same story.

The Sun looks ahead to this year's Christmas special, based mostly on the few details seen in the teaser trailer at the end of Saturday's episode. TheLiverpool Echo wonders what to do on Saturday nights now that Doctor Who has finished its current run, while the Boston Herald generally sings the praises of the programme.

Thanks to all on the Doctor Who Forum media thread.

On Saturday, Doctor Who News featured a forthcoming schedule for Doctor Who DVD titles for North America. After receiving several queries from UK readers, following is the current forthcoming DVD schedule for the United Kingdom (Updated on July 7th with further information):
Recent UK releases (in case you haven't picked them up) included the "Beneath the Surface" Boxed Set (which included "Doctor Who and the Silurians," "The Sea Devils" and "Warriors of the Deep") on 14 January, "The Time Meddler" on 4 February, "The Five Doctors: 25th Anniversary Edition" on 3 March, "Black Orchid" on 14 April, "The Invasion of Time" on 5 May and "K9 Tales" (featuring "The Invisible Enemy" and "K9 and Company") on 16 June.

The final episode of Series Four, Journey's End, was the most-watched programme of the past week, according to unofficial overnights.

Although the men's final at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships peaked with an audience of 12.7 million, the average for the whole programme was only 7.4 million.

If this is confirmed when final figures are published byBARB in nine days' time then Journey's End will have achieved the highest chart position in Doctor Who's history.

The Appreciation Index for the programme was once more an incredible 91. For a minority programme on a digital channel, a score of over 90 is very unusual. For the most watched programme of the week to score this high is is virtually unprecedented and a massive achievement for the programme.

Sunday's BBC3 repeat got an overnight audience of 0.99 million viewers. It was a 4.4% share of the multichannel audience and the most-watched programme on all multichannel TV for Sunday, with nearly twice the audience of the second-placed Family Guy. Another 400,000 viewed or downloaded the episode using the BBC iPlayer over the past two days.

Saturday's edition of Doctor Who Confidential was watched by a record 1.32 million viewers, the highest ever achieved for this programme. It had a share of 7.6 % and was the most-watched on multichannel television on Saturday. The Sunday repeat had 0.42 million watching.

Doctor Who was also number one on Friday's multichannel list, with the repeat of The Stolen Earth getting 0.59 million watching. The earlier repeat ofTurn Left got 0.35 million viewers and was 12th for the day.

Both The Stolen Earth and Journey's End will be repeated next Sunday afternoon on BBC1.

As Series Four draws to a close, Executive Producer and Head Writer Russell T Davies talks about his involvement with Doctor Who, the show he was part of reviving after a 16-year hiatus in 2005. Answering fans' questions on the BBC News website, he says that once he leaves he will no longer be involved with the show even for an occasional writing stint. He hands the reins over to Steven Moffat in 2010.

"I think Steven's more than his own man. He doesn't need me at all. I won't write for it in the future. I'm done with it. It's time to move on and I'd hate to be just a ghost haunting the corridors that I used to walk.

"And who needs me? Because Steve's brilliant and they've got a thousand million plans. I'll just be old news and it's about time."

He said he would most miss the people he had worked with. "They are genuinely brilliant people, our designers and producers and the crew at BBC Wales. They are fantastic and they're part of the reason I've stayed for so long."

Despite his intial fears of low budget and a non-peaktime slot, he was pleased with the way the BBC treated the show. "I thought there'd be a lot of compromise, I thought we'd be compromised on budget. We could have ended up with no ratings and a Sunday afternoon slot, so absolutely nothing [was compromised] and that really is the honest answer. We got to make everything that I wanted to make.

"I knew what we'd made was good. So I knew I could sleep at night. I knew even if no one watched it, I could sit there and say I had done a great piece of work."

He added: "None of us ever saw this much success coming. I didn't even envisage a spin-off would be possible."

When asked about his favourite line of dialogue, he replied: "I did love Donna, played by Catherine Tate, in a show we did two weeks ago called Turn Left. She said: 'You liar, you told me I was special' to Rose, when she feels her life has been betrayed and lied. I think she delivers that line with such venom - I love that moment."

Asked which villains or creatures he might have brought back if he'd continued with Doctor Who, he said: "I've used a lot of the classics but the Silurians were always very good. They were a race of lizard people who were the original owners of the Earth. I always thought it was a very clever idea that there was a civilisation before us. I'm not bringing them back but they're ripe to be returned one day."

Unofficial figures show that the final episode of Series Four, Journey's End, was watched by 9.4 millionviewers, giving it a 45.9% share of the total television audience.

Not only was the programme the highest rated on Saturday, beating the second placed Casualty by nearly 4 million viewers, it is currently the highest rated programme of the week. If no Sunday programme manages to beat it then this will be the first time in the series' long history that it has ever been the top rated programme of the week.

Fifteen minute breakdowns show that Doctor Who peaked with 9.8 million viewers while the highest rating ITV1 got against the programme was 2.4 million viewers. After it finished BBC1 lost 5 million viewers. ITV1's highest rated programme on Saturday was New You've Been Framed! with 4.2 million.

Final figures will be released by BARB in ten days time.

Posted By John Bowman

The BBC TV studios where Doctor Who was recorded during most of its classic era may be given special status.

English Heritage, the UK government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, is urging the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to recognise the architectural and cultural significance of Television Centre - which is at White City in London - and list parts of it at grade II.

This would classify them as of special interest and would ensure their historic and architectural interest was considered carefully before any alterations - internally or externally - were agreed.

Doctor Who was produced at TV Centre for the majority of its stories made between 1966 and 1989. Last October, this site reported that the centre, in Wood Lane, was being put up for sale.

Peter Beacham, heritage protection director for English Heritage, said: "As one of the first purpose-built TV studios in the world, it represents the moment when Britain led Europe into the television age. The BBC itself is an important part of our British identity and Television Centre has acquired an iconic presence.

"The nation has an immense fondness for this building and what it represents for our culture. We all feel we know areas such as the Blue Peter garden and the studios where people have watched significant moments in broadcasting over the last 50 years: from early Doctor Who to Top of the Pops."

He said the aim was to ensure the site remained flexible to adapt to changing technology or new uses, "despite being of undeniable national interest and one of very few monuments to television history".

English Heritage has assigned special interest to the scenery workshops, with their barrel-vaulted ceiling and rows of circular rooflights, the 1950s canteen that overlooks the Blue Peter garden, and the distinctive circular drum that houses offices and the main studios.

A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC is happy to discuss with English Heritage any proposal it has and we will comment to the Secretary of State on the historic and architectural merit of TVC in due course.

"The BBC has announced that it does not intend to occupy the whole of TVC after 2012 but any reference to detailed development plans for the building and site is premature.

"We recognise the historical importance of the building and will be looking for a solution that best preserves the interests of the BBC and licence-fee payer, but there are no firm plans currently on the table."

Already listed is Alexandra Palace in Wood Green, London, from where the world's first regular public television service came and where an establishing shot was filmed for The Idiot's Lantern in January 2006.